Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Another day, another appointment! Since her visit to the perinatal clinic last week, Ave gain 10 oz...she is now 20 lbs, 2 oz. (time for a big girl seat facing forward...yay!). She is 29.5". She weathered her three needles okay. We would have been out pretty fast had I not met with another new nurse which meant a half-hour talk to cover her history. Now I am trying to find some apparatuses (apparati? ha!) so she can practice climbing where she puts weight on her hips and calves (such as a small set of stairs?). She seems to be growing a little bored with things so I got to switch it up...we need a baby obstacle course, methinks...

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Brad and I took the girl up to the perinatal clinic for another routine follow-up. She only had an appointment to see the occupational therapist (we had originally gone there for eating issues since a] she had to gain weight, b] she had to relearn how to suck and c] she had so many problems with the formula). Anyway, the OT thinks Ave is doing just fine and she shouldn't need to see her anymore from here on out.

When the OT left, we met with the physiotherapist. While Avery has improved greatly with her gross motor skills over Christmas (crawling like a madwoman esp. when she thinks she can get somewhere/something that is off limits!), her right-side muscle tone is still not where it should be. She has a tight hamstring, calf and foot (which causes some issues with coordination). In addition, her right hand is still not as precise as it should be (she still palms items sometimes and favours her left hand most often). The physiotherapist gave us lots of ideas on how to work with her that I can going to ask Candice (our nanny) to incorporate into their playtime.

We were able to watch Avery sit with the physiotherapist and grab objects with her right hand. Since she felt secure under her guidance, she was able to focus on the foods and forget about losing her balance. (The physiotherapist thinks that Avery tenses up when she tries to sit [which is why she also arches her back] which only reinforces her lack of balance. As such, she does what feels best which is just lie on the floor.)

We are going to go back in a couple of months to see how she has improved and then get more tips on the next stages of her development.